As a former bassist of Joy Division and New Order, Peter Hook is now leading his own band, The Light, setting out with a staggering dream to play every single LP in full from his whole career. OTwo Music Editor Barry Fenton chatted to him on a zoom call from a Chinese Takeaway in Prague, looking back on Hook's 45 year career, and all that is still to come.
Having a career spanning over 45 years is something anyone could be very proud of. Having a career as a punk-rocker for over 45 years is something many people wouldn’t even consider a possibility. It's almost stupefying. As a former bassist of Joy Division and New Order, Peter Hook is now leading his own band, The Light, setting out with a staggering dream to play every single LP in full from his whole career. To my generation, this is also somewhat unthinkable. This is all on my mind as I nervously log onto my Zoom call in a quiet Chinese takeaway to have a chat with the legend himself (don’t ask).
In typical Zoom-fashion our chat is delayed by the usual technical difficulties - luckily resolved by Hook’s son Jack (current bassist for Smashing Pumpkins). Realising there’s now two famous bassists in this virtual room I get even more nervous, but not to worry. We exchange the usual pleasantries before delving straight in.
Barry: So, Peter — 45 years into your career and you’re still going. What keeps you on the road?
Peter Hook: Well, I’m actually running a 10K race for charity on May 18th. My mate texted me the other day to say, "You know that’s 45 years to the day since Ian Curtis died?" I just thought, Christ, where did that go? It's unbelievable. But here we are — 45 years later — still lovingly playing Joy Division's music to people who are new to it, which is absolutely amazing. It's the greatest compliment in the world, it has to be said. I mean, I'm very lucky because when I began playing Joy Division in 2010, I wasn't hopeful about it giving me a career back. I just wanted to celebrate Ian Curtis's 30th anniversary . . . So we decided to celebrate 30 years of Ian Curtis's life in the Factory, and we played Unknown Pleasures.
Barry: And that idea of playing full albums — that was yours?
Hook: The idea was to celebrate the record and I stole that idea, or borrowed it, from Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream because they were doing it with Screamadelica. And it gave us a concept.
So once we did Unknown Pleasures and we gained a small following and it got bigger and bigger and bigger. It's been fantastic. We played Closer by Joy Division, and then we played Still, and I thought, shit, you know what? Why stop there? Let’s play the rest of the LPs. So we've actually played 12 LPs now. This is the 12th, Get Ready.
My idea and my hope was to be able to play every song that Joy Division ever wrote and recorded, which I've done. And now I'm well on the way to playing every song that New Order have ever recorded and written. There's been a few B-sides that I couldn't do, but all the LPs have been done.
So this is my next step in finishing a lifetime's ambition - hopefully before my lifetime!
Barry: Is it difficult, returning to songs with such history?
Hook: The interesting thing is that because New Order ended so badly, and they reformed without me and put me through hell doing it - everything by New Order has been coloured badly. So each time I do a record and I play those songs, I found that I actually get those songs out. It's like little soldiers coming back to you and going, oh, my God, you're back, boys.
[Get Ready] was Barney and I's honeymoon record. We got back together when New Order had split up - he went off to do Electronic and I was doing Monaco. And we had varying degrees of success with both. And we decided to get back together as New Order. Now, I, for one, never thought we would. I thought he was so jaundiced and so bitter at the end. I didn't think we'd ever get back together again. But lo and behold!
We made this great record, more or less just the two of us, because Steve and Gillian weren't around a lot for the making of this record. And it was really me and him on honeymoon in the studio, which was Real World's Peter Gabriel Studio, which was like Disneyland for musicians. We had a fantastic time making it. We did really well. Both of our characters were brought up very much in this particular record.
Yeah, I've realised that now as I've been rehearsing with the band and playing it, I thought, wow, there's loads of great guitar on it, loads of great bass on it. The songs are very tongue in cheek from a lyrical point of view. Before I was a little bit jaundiced, as we said, but as I'm playing it, I'm thinking - boys, you're coming home.
So for us, this is a change. And to be able to tour it, as we are doing in America, plus greatest hits Joy Division and the greatest hits New Order with some real shit thrown in - it's literally getting to the point of Bruce Springsteen, where we're going to be there all night, and people are going to be banging on the doors trying to get out. Because we're going to be playing so many songs - I think the setlist so far is up to something like Ramones territory, like 35 songs - even we’re thinking we need to cut this down. We're going to have a heart attack if we carry on like this!
Now I look back and think how fucking lazy we used to be!
Barry: I’d say playing through albums like that is a particularly tricky process at times, considering how multi-layered you music can be?
Hook: The thing is: it is difficult. I don’t get to dump the songs if they’re too hard to change into a live version. We just have to do it. With New Order, when we would come across a song like that we could just dump it out of the setlist - can't play it, it's too difficult. Now, when we get to these songs, I have to go, oh shit, I've got to play it because my gimmick is to play all the songs on the LP in chronological order. So, yeah, it has been hard work, but it's really been worth it. Now I look back and think how fucking lazy we used to be!
Barry: It’s been a journey.
Hook: I was thinking about this the other day - I was playing the songs, and I was thinking about the Sex Pistols gig when we formed the band, and I was thinking about when we played our first gig. And I was thinking, this is as exciting. I feel as excited now as I did then.
But you know what? I blame Bruce Springstein. I went to see him in Ireland last year - three and a half hours, it was incredible. I turned to my wife and said, “it looks like I’m never retiring.” She said, “I knew that!” So, yeah, it's a strange predicament, to be at this age and still enjoying yourself as much as you did.
When I think of that 20 year old kid walking out of that Sex Pistols gig who didn't even know what a bass guitar was . . . I hope that that's an inspiration to everyone. I didn't even know what a bass guitar was! I said to that guy who gave me my first bass guitar, when I bought it at the shop - I said to him, but my mate’s has got six strings. He said, that's because your mate has a guitar. And I was like, ohh! It was like a revelation to me. My hope was just that it'd be easier to play because it had less strings.
Barry: I always find it really interesting how there's so many big artists that are still going from 20, 30, 40 years ago. It would almost make a cynic think there isn’t enough new music being made today compared to the 70’s and 80’s.
Hook: I mean, I didn't think so at the time when I began it, because the punk thing was such a seizure that you literally only thought about the next day and you never even thought that you'd last past the next week. You know, not that I'd be playing Joy Division at a punk festival in Las Vegas, in 2025. Fuck me. I think even Ian Curtis would be surprised at that.
But you do have to think of how few musicians can still make a living out of music - and to be one of them, it is a fantastic honour and I can't believe I'm still getting away with it.
The thing is, we blundered. New Order, Joy Division, we blundered through the whole thing. We had no fucking idea what we were doing. All we wanted to do was just do it. That was how simple it was: just do it. Whatever it takes, just carry on doing it. And when people ask you, how have you managed to have such a long career in music? The answer is so simple. I never gave up. Because there's so many people that do give up. And it has been difficult, it's been difficult over and over and over again. But I've never given up.
You do have to take hope, and realise that it can be done. You can go to the Sex Pistols, you can form a gig on the way out when you don't even know what a bass guitar is. You can do it.
With a career of so many highs and lows, from being at the forefront of the UK’s post-punk scene to losing their front man at the height of their success, I have to admit I was afraid I might be meeting with a wistful or resentful “back in my day” type figure to confirm the cliché that you should never meet your heroes.
In the case of Peter Hook I couldn’t have been more wrong. He’s a genuine charmer who looks at his career with honesty and tells it like it is. The type of person who only gets warmer and more interesting the more you chat.
I was feeling very grateful as we finished up and I closed my laptop, only to remember I was still in a Chinese takeaway.